On the "Because Club"

Back in elementary school (I believe it was second grade), I remember being taught never to start a sentence with the word “and” or “because.” My teacher even created two “clubs,” the And Club and the Because Club, for students who dared to use those words incorrectly.* The message was simple: You don't want to be in either club.

*We were also cautioned not to start a sentence with the word “but,” but there was no But Club. I leave it to the reader to ponder the reasons for this omission.

Now that I work with high school students on a pretty frequent basis, I'm learning that I was far from unique in being taught these things many years ago. In the past year, I've probably had a dozen different people assert that it's not okay to start a sentence with the word “because.” Years after learning how to write much more interesting sentences, they're still trying to stay out of the club.

As a current, proud member of the Because Club, I have something to say: You can start a sentence with “because.” It's really okay. Just structure your sentences correctly.

For the record, your elementary school teacher wasn't wrong when he or she told you not to start a sentence with “because.” The intent was to keep you from writing sentences like these:

“Why didn't you invite the hippopotamus?”

“Because his belly button is too big.”

As written, the second sentence is a fragment. In casual speech, using fragments is okay as long as the meaning is clear, but in formal writing, it's incorrect.

Not every sentence that starts with “because” is a fragment, however. To understand how this works, we first need to take a look at the two types of clauses.

A clause is any collection of words that includes a subject, which performs an action, and a predicate verb, which describes the action itself. A subject is usually a noun or pronoun, but it can also be an -ing verb that functions as a noun (we call this a gerund). A predicate verb is an “active” verb form; “run” or “runs” will work, but “running”or “to run” will not.

If a clause expresses a complete thought, we say that it is independent. Independent clauses need not be especially long: “James ran” is a perfectly fine independent clause. As long as we have a subject, a predicate verb and a complete thought, we have an independent clause.

An independent clause can stand on its own as a complete sentence, or it can be part of a longer sentence. If a sentence contains two independent clauses, they must be combined with a semicolon (;) or with a coordinating conjunction; these are the FANBOYS conjunctions “for,” “and,” “nor,” “but,” “or,” “yet,” “so.” A sentence that contains multiple independent clauses is called a compound sentence.

Coordinating conjunctions can be used for a few purposes other than combining two independent clauses, but starting a sentence is not one of them.* If you're a member of the And Club, I'd suggest finding some more grammatically conscious friends.**

*In some informal contexts, occasionally starting a sentence with a coordinating conjunction is okay. However, it's never appropriate in formal writing.

**Again, I leave it to the reader to ponder the implications for members of the But Club.

Okay, “and” and “but” are out. Where does this leave “because?”

I mentioned earlier that an independent clause contains a subject and a predicate verb and expresses a complete thought. A collection of words with a subject and predicate verb that doesn't express a complete thought is called a dependent or subordinate clause.

The culprit is a word called a subordinating conjunction: a linking word that makes the thought incomplete. Some of the most commonly used subordinating conjunctions are “as,” “if,” “though,” “that,” “when,” “where,” “until,” “while” and our good friend “because.”

Hence, the sentence “Because his belly button is too big” is not a sentence at all. Without the “because,” it would be a perfectly fine sentence: “His belly button is too big.” With the “because,” it becomes a dependent clause, and as the name implies, a dependent clause can't stand on its own.

Dependent clauses aren't bad; they just can't be used by themselves. If you want to start a sentence with a subordinating conjunction such as “because,” all you need to do is add an independent clause right after the dependent clause to form a complex sentence. Use a comma to separate the two clauses, as in:

“Because his belly button is too big, I didn't invite the hippopotamus.”

Take heart, my fellow members of the Because Club. Create complex sentences, and you'll be vindicated.